How to grow your LinkedIn groups

If you use LinkedIn groups properly, they can both generate leads and increase your influence in an engaged community. But how do you attract more members to your LinkedIn group? In this article, we provide you with 5 tips on how to quickly increase the number of members in your LinkedIn groups.

1. Fine-tune your group description

One way to attract group members is to optimize the description of your group. This description is found on every group page on LinkedIn.

When writing the description of your group, you should start with stating the ultimate reason to join the group. This is the first thing potential members will see, and therefore it is important to emphasize how what your group contribute with. Ensure that both the purpose and the advantages of being a member are clear to the reader.

It can be advantageous to include keywords from the industry. This makes it easier for people to find your group when they are looking for groups to join. Identify the most important and relevant keywords for your group, and then use these words to fine-tune your group description. It might also be a good idea to point out to the group members that self-promoting content is not allowed in the group. If you do not do this, you risk that your group will receive a lot of spam from people trying to promote a product or service. Remember, you’re looking for members that can add value to your group on LinkedIn.

2. Invite your connections

LinkedIn groups are private, and therefore you have to manually invite your network to join your group. To do this, you have to enter the main page of your group and click the “Invite” button. Try to avoid inviting people who are most likely not interested in joining your group. Look at each person’s profile and job title – will your group be of interest?

It is important to note that it varies from group type to group type how you can invite connections. In standard groups, everyone can invite their own connections, but only the administrator and group owner can accept and invite connections via e-mail address. On LinkedIn, it is possible to establish hidden groups. For these, only group owners and administrators can invite new group members. In addition, an invitation or a link to the group is required in order to join a hidden group.

3. Ask your colleagues for help

Maybe you have a colleague who has a large network of people belonging to your target group. Or maybe you know a person who is running a blog about precisely the subject of your group. It can be an advantage to ask relevant people in your network to help you promote your group if you in return share their group or content as well. Collaborations like that can result in a huge increase in the number of members in your group.

If you ask for a helping hand, it is important to sound as human as possible. Forget about the automatic messages – they will be recognized in a matter of seconds. Instead, send the person a personal message or e-mail. When writing the e-mail, start by stating that you established a group, which you are convinced will be of great value for the person or the person’s network. For instance, set up your arguments in bullet points to make it as clear and easy for the receiver as possible.

4. Draw attention to yourself and your group

Acquiring a large number of group members requires hard work. You have to draw attention to yourself and your group through other means whereby you are in contact with the target group. For instance, you can send out a newsletter about your group to relevant contacts who have given you permission to e-mail them. Again, remember to be personal, concise and exact – and also emphasize the advantages of joining the group. If your group and its subject are relevant to the receivers of the newsletter, a lot of new people will join your group as a result of the e-mail.

NOTE: Remember that it is your responsibility to accept people that join the group. Therefore, check often for new enrolments, so new members will not have to wait to start participating in group discussions, etc.

5. Consider a sponsored post

If your budget allows, you can promote your group on LinkedIn via sponsored content. This allows you to target posts to potential group members by segmenting by job title, industry, company size, etc.

When you set up sponsored content, you can determine your budget – the sponsored content will stop showing up in the feed of your target group when the budget limit has been reached. Sponsored content on LinkedIn does not require a long-term contract or commitment.

Remember!
It is your responsibility as the group owner or administrator to manage the content of the group – what content is allowed and what is not? You can at any time delete content that isn’t relevant or spam content.

Make sure to include questions in your posts in the group – this stimulates engagement and interaction. Also, be aware of your use of language in the group: use a proper and professional tone and don’t hesitate to expect the same from your group members.

Which tactics have you used to boost the number of members in your LinkedIn group?